v Essays 17 
houses, and the like; there may be great impositions 
that are not properly taxed. 
0. Is not the post-office rate an internal tax laid 
by act of Parliament? 
A. 1 have answered that. 
(Q. Are all parts of the colonies equally able to pay 
taxes? 
A. No, certainly; the frontier parts, which have 
been ravaged by the enemy, are greatly disabled by 
that means; and therefore, in such cases, are usually 
favored in our tax laws. 
Q. Can we, at this distance, be competent judges 
of what favors are necessary? 
A. The Parliament have supposed it, by claiming 
a right to make tax laws for America; I think it 
impossible. 
Q. Would the repeal of the Stamp Act be any dis- 
couragement of your manufactures? Will the peo- 
ple that have begun to manufacture decline it? 
A. Yes, I think they will; especially if, at the 
same time, the trade is opened again, so that remit- 
tances can be easily made. I have known several in- 
stances that make it probable. In the war before 
last, tobacco being low, and making little remittance, 
the people of Virginia went generally into family 
manufactures. Afterwards, when tobacco bore a 
better price, they returned to the use of British man- 
ufactures.. So fulling-mills were very much disused 
in the last war in Pennsylvania, because bills were 
then plenty, and remittances could easily be made to 
Britain for English cloth and other goods. 
Q. If the Stamp Act should be repealed, would it 
766) in